One Year Ago Today

Circa July 29, 1996. Our first and only time at Disneyland.

June 9, 2021. One year ago today, everything changed. Mom passed away in the morning. Her battle with cancer had come to an end. Five long years of this. Together—always hoping we would end up on the other side, triumphant. In many ways we were. Triumphant in finding the little joys despite the harrowing hardships; triumphant in carving out our own path, even when things seemed insurmountable; and triumphant in knowing and recognizing when it’s our time to go. Assuredly, however, the journey, past and present, has never been easy. As mom took her last breath, I could feel the resounding convergence of every possible emotion I’ve ever felt and suddenly paralyzed by the shear volume of this veracity. The simple truth was that mom is now gone. I can still remember the brief silence that ensued, comforted by the birds chirping outside our window, as they gathered around the dragon fruit cactus. Since then, I’ve always imagined she was somehow still here, expressed through the nuances of nature and returned to the soil in which all of us are born.